16/09/2026
Have you ever tried a screen detox for a week? Last week, at Grace Primary, we held our annual Screen-Free Week. We are certainly not anti-screen and absolutely recognise the many benefits that technology can bring. Rather, the aim of this annual ‘digital Spring-clean’ (appropriately held in September!) is to give us an opportunity to pause, assess our use of screens and consider whether we are creating wholesome family habits around this important area of life.
Judy, our Director of Philosophy, reminds us why we continue to set aside this week each year. The idea is to minimise the digital distractions that can take away from our ability to attend well to the real world. This quotation from Grace Pouch, author of Savoring Childhood, powerfully captures the importance of attention:
“Attention is the currency of love, and if you waste enough of it you’ll wind up broke. Richard Foster was bold enough to write in the opening of Celebration of Discipline, “Distraction is the primary spiritual problem in contemporary culture.” You don’t have to be smart to love; you do have to be attentive.
Brain science proves what I know from experience: Too much noise or visual clutter fragments my focus. Too little sleep impairs my concentration. An overcrowded schedule muddles my mind. Too little time outside dulls my sensitivity to God’s subtle vocabulary. Manipulative apps hold my attention hostage.
I also know from experience what strengthens attention: Reading a book. Giving your full focus to a child telling a long story. Observing a lunar eclipse, or spying on a great blue heron stalking a fish. Spending time alone with your thoughts. Standing in the check-out line without a phone in your hand. We don’t think of these as “spiritual” exercises, but every little classroom for attention helps us, indirectly, to become people with a greater capacity to love God and love others well.”
From the feedback we received, it sounds as though many of our families used the week as an opportunity to reconnect and be present — spending precious time together outdoors, playing board games and reading, getting inventive by making cars, toys and new games, picking up old projects that had been sidelined, and learning new skills such as chess and crocheting. Perhaps most importantly, it reminded us that sometimes, by putting our screens aside, we make room for the things that matter most: time, attention, connection and wonder.
